Commentary by Stephen Macaulay
Trump seems to think if he says something often enough it is true. And apparently there are a lot of people who are won over by his — I would say “tissue of,” but it is more like a thick tarpaulin of — lies. And even though some of them undoubtedly know better, they clap and nod and cheer.
Until the lies are exposed to a harsh reality. Yes, there is a difference between truth and lies.
But then there is a diversion to something equally outrageous.
So let’s consider parts of his presentation last night and put it into context with something that is going to be felt by all Americans, whether they believe him and voted for him or not.
Trump seems very proud of the 312 votes he won in the Electoral College, as though the number is unprecedented.
- Ronald Reagan (1984): 525
- George HW Bush: 426
- Bill Clinton: 370 and 379
Heck, the man he complained about more than Biden:
- Barack Obama: 365 and 332
Somehow that 312 isn’t especially mandate-like.
More important than Trump’s patting himself on the back was Sen. Elissa Slotkin’s response to the presentation that was like a reality show (which, of course, isn’t particularly real in any sense).
The Michigan Democrat said:
“He’s on the hunt to find trillions of dollars to pass along to the wealthiest in America, and to do that, he’s going to make you pay in every part of your life. Grocery and home prices are going up, not down, and he hasn’t laid out a credible plan to deal with either of those. His tariffs on allies like Canada will raise prices on energy, lumber and cars and start a trade war that will hurt manufacturing and farmers.”
First of all, the hunt for trillions being conducted by DOGE. Trump pointed out several instances where there seems to be what is silly spending. But do we know that the spending was superfluous or just something that makes for good television?
If you’ve ever run a business or even managed people you know that there are invariably some people who aren’t doing what they should be and perhaps once upon a time stole paper (does anyone print at home anymore?).
But you knew who the good ones are.
Or let’s say you have a budget that pays for various functions. That wasn’t created by throwing darts at a board and then using the numbers.
Knowing what and how much can be cut takes serious forensic accounting.
Yet evidently in the “hunt for trillions” they are not deploying solid practices but hacking away.
We’ve seen them have to hire people back that had been let go. While these people are probably happy they’ve got a job, how committed do you think they’re going to be knowing that they’ve been treated like tissue paper?
“Every day my administration is fighting to deliver the change America needs to bring a future that America deserves, and we’re doing it.”
What are they doing?
To quote him:
- An immediate freeze on all federal hiring.
- A freeze on all new federal regulations.
- A freeze on all foreign aid.
And how does that help? That isn’t creating policy.
He “brought back free speech in America. It’s back.”
Is this why he sues and bans news organizations?
“Grocery and home prices are going up, not down, and he hasn’t laid out a credible plan to deal with either of those.”
He had claimed that he was going to deal with grocery prices on day one.
That’s hard to do. And he hasn’t done it.
Who is to blame for high egg prices?
Obama.
“Joe Biden especially let the price of eggs get out of control.” Yes, blame it on someone
else. But wasn’t he hired by the American people to address this?
He continued: “The egg prices, out of control. And we’re working hard to get it back down.”
How are they working to get the price down? Perhaps cutting people at the Food Safety and Inspection Service?
Trump says he will get the price of eggs down by. . .drilling for oil.
He says “A major focus of our fight to defeat inflation is rapidly reducing the price of energy.”
Yes, energy is an input to food costs.
An input.
And while energy costs rose 1% year over year in January, housing prices in 2024 rose 4.7% and food prices by 1.6%. Seems like addressing those two categories would be beneficial. But it is easier to say “It’s called drill, baby, drill.”
The day of his speech he put 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico.
So sticking to the grocery aspect of things, consider this, from the US Department of Agriculture (assuming that it is still open):
“Imports play an increasingly important role in ensuring that fresh fruit and vegetables are available year-round in the United States .... In 2023, Mexico and Canada supplied 51% and 2%, respectively, of U.S. fresh fruit imports, and 69% and 20%, respectively, of US fresh vegetable imports in terms of value.”
Oh, who needs that?
“Our new trade policy will also be great for the American farmer — I love the farmer — who will now be selling into our home market, the USA, because nobody is going to be able to compete with you.”
Think about that for a minute. What keeps prices of goods and services in check? Competition. But here is the Republican president saying that he is going to eliminate competition in the market. Whatever happened to free-markets, Republicans?
And those farmers had better hope that they’re able to increase prices by selling domestically because other countries will retaliate. During the first Trump administration, when he put tariffs on China, that country (surprise, surprise) retaliated, such that Trump had to provide aid to US farmers on the order of $61 billion.
As the Council on Foreign Relations put it of that situation:
“payouts to farmers battered by Chinese retaliation have eaten up over 92% of the trade-war tax proceeds.
“The president is therefore right when he says farmers ‘got’ his tariff money. That money came not from China, however, but from taxes he imposed on Americans.”
For someone who is so keen on reducing taxes, the taxes that we’ll be paying directly for tariffs seems counter to what he claims.
And Slotkin noted the prices of housing.
Here’s something from The Wall Street Journal on Monday:
“Lumber futures Monday rose to their highest point since August 2022, when wood prices were plunging from their pandemic peak, in a sign that it could get a lot more expensive to build a house or a deck if the Canadian tariffs stick.”
Slotkin is right: “he’s going to make you pay.”
Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.